ARC3020Y F
Instructor(s): Brady Peters
Meeting Section: L0102
Tuesday, 9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm

“Since, in the long run, every planetary civilization will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring - not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive ... If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds."
- Carl Sagan

Studio Leader: Brady Peters

Studio Collaborators:

• Xavier DeKestelier –Head of Design Technology and Innovation, Hassell Studio, London, UK
• Maria Yablonina –Architect and Roboticist, Daniels Faculty, Toronto
• Nicholas Hoban – Digital Fabrication Guru, Daniels Faculty, Toronto

A central premise of this studio is that architecture will be key to the success of our mission to have an interstellar existence. If architecture is the design and organization of the structures and spaces that protect us, inspire us, and let us thrive as a species, then architecture will be critical to making a home between the stars possible.

The challenge of this studio is to design a habitat for humans on the Moon.

This challenge requires us to consider and undertake research in several areas: architecture for extreme environments, design for physical and psychological well-being, the development of new digital fabrication and robotic prototyping technology, sustainability, and the development of appropriate narratives for future dwelling beyond earth.
 

“The moon’s a mean old bitch. She doesn’t care why your suit fails. She just kills you when it does.”
- Andy Weir (Artemis)

 

Extreme environments lack critical resources or involve hostile environmental challenges. Building in extraterrestrial environments requires us re-think architecture from first principles. Gravity is different, we are no longer protected from lethal solar radiation, and there is no atmosphere, so there is no survivable “outside”.
 

“We can keep space crews alive and working productively in the confines of space craft, but we have not yet learned how to give them a home away from home.”
- James Wise (from “Space Habitats and Habitability”)

 

There are not only dangers from environmental threats, but also psychological ones. It might seem that the success of space habitation would be all about technology, but it’s not. It’s also how people live and interact every day. It is critical that our habitats are built not only robustly, but in a way that encourages human interaction, and enable humans not just to survive, but to thrive.

But how will we build these new habitats? As it costs about $4,000 to launch a kilogram of material to low Earth orbit, it is clear that it we can’t bring much building material from earth. We will need to use native materials, and this theory is called “In Situ Resource Utilization” (ISRU). Studio participants have access to the Robotic Prototyping laboratory. The lab has a KUKA KR150 robot with a mill and grippers as well as two new 3D printing heads that have been purchased to support this research: a WASP 3D print clay extruder, and a DYZE 3D print large-scale pellet extruder. Through the combined use of computational design and digital fabrication we will investigate the architectural tectonics of new lunar habitats. The design and creation of custom mobile robots is encouraged.
 

"We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered was the Earth".
- Bill Anders (reflecting on his famous photograph, Earthrise 1968)

 

The physical necessities of living and working in the lunar environment promotes a robust attitude towards radical ecological thinking. The success of habitats will rely on concepts such as structural and material efficiency, a reliance on renewable energy such as solar power, the selection of appropriate sites and building forms, and new attitudes towards consumption, recycling, and the promotion of a circular economy. This studio presents an opportunity not only to learn about sustainability for lunar habitats, but enable us to reflect upon what we need to do to make architecture sustainable on the Earth.

One may question the premise of this studio as being very distant from the meaningful concerns an architect’s everyday practice, distant from the discipline of architecture, and distant in terms of time.

It is not. This is happening now.

Leading architecture firms such as SOM, BIG, Foster + Partners, and Hassell Studio, together with new design and technology companies such as AI Spacefactory, ICON, and SEArch+ are actively working to develop new projects for space, lunar, and Martian habitation. Private companies like SpaceX, BlueOrigin, Virgin Galactic, Redwire, Pisces, and countless others are actively pursuing various aspects of moving humans off-earth.

This semester, we will work with one the world’s leading space architects, Xavier DeKestelier. This studio will be carried in parallel with a new European Space Agency (ESA) sponsored research project to develop robotic 3D printing methods for lunar habitation.

In terms of a “directed research scale” this studio rates about a 5/10. While all students will be working on a common theme, and will have common assignments in the first semester, it is expected that within this broad theme, students will develop their own unique research area. Once a student’s research questions are determined by the end of the first semester, student’s will have the freedom to set their own research agenda in the second semester (in consultation with tutors).

Some examples of areas that can be supervised are: Digital Fabrication, Robotic Fabrication, Custom Mobile Robots, Parametric Design, Simulation, Optimization, Performance-driven Design, Responsive/Adaptive Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, Complex Geometry, Sustainability, Biophilic Design, Science Fiction & Architecture, Space Architecture, and Lunar Habitat Design.